Alberta ranching history at the Bar U Ranch
Compared to the mileages we’ve been putting on in recent days, Day 32 of the trip – Wednesday, May 25th – was a fairly long one, with a historic site stop that was much longer than I’d expected.
We needed to drive a total of 258 km (160 mi) – 142 km (88 mi) from Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump to the Bar U Ranch, and then another 116 km (72 mi) to the campground we had reserved for 5 nights in Cochrane. This is the maximum mileage I like to drive in a day with the motorhome – I set 240 km (150 mi) as the limit when I planned the trip, though a few are above that for various reasons. Click here to open an interactive version of the map in a new window.
The overflow parking lot at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was a magnificent place to start the day off. This wonderful light was shot at 06:02.
In the dawn light, the large interpretive centre almost disappears into the hillside among the cliffs. When we went to bed, we weren’t sure whether or not we’d go through the interpretive centre or not. We were ready to hit the road by 7:30, though, and given what she’d seen on the trail below the cliffs and what I’d told her from my visits to the centre, Cathy didn’t feel that we needed to stay for 3 hours or so for her to go through it.
Heading west towards Bar U Ranch on Highway 540 just before 09:00. This country has a really good feel to it – any of the early pioneers who arrived on a day like this must have thought they’d reached their Promised Land.
We had a bit of time to kill once we reached the ranch, as it doesn’t open until 10:00. A long dog walk and a look at the sculpture out front easily took care of that time, though.
“A Question of Survival” is a larger-than-life-size bronze by neighbour Rich Roenisch. It’s based on an encounter with a pack of wolves by George Lane, who bought the ranch in 1902. It was dedicated on June 27, 1997.
The ranch headquarters was built out of the wind along Pekisko Creek. At its peak, the ranch, operated by the North West Cattle Company, held 157,960 acres of leased grazing land. The park is now 148.43 hectares in size (367 acres), and has 35 historic structures. It was purchased by Parks Canada in 1991, with assistance from the Friends of the Bar U Historic Ranch Association, and Bar U Ranch National Historic Site opened to the public in 1995. Canadian Cattlemen magazine has published a good summary of the ranch’s history.
As Cathy and I left the visitor centre, a cowboy asked if he could walk with us. Of course! The cowboy, Don Wilson, is a long-time interpreter at the Bar U, and we quickly learned that he and his wife spent many years in Dawson City! We ended up spending an hour and a half with Don, and I have no doubt that he could have continued telling us stories about the ranch for another few hours.
In 1909, George Lane started a Percheron draft horse breeding operation after importing stud and brood mare stock from Le Perche, France, and the Percherons, which were exported in large numbers to Great Britain in particular, were a significant factor in making the ranch world famous.
The quality of the construction of some of the buildings at the ranch is notable – this is the Pekisko post office.
Other notable work is being done by park interpeters today – the harnesses and saddles made in this shop are works of art.
The bunkhouse has been restored to really look like it would have in the ranch’s heyday, with the area around each bed being heavily personalized by the ranch hand who was based there.
Among the many famous visitors to the ranch from around the world was Edward, Prince of Wales, who visited the Bar U in 1919. He was so impressed that he bought an adjacent ranch, which he named the EP (Edward Prince) Ranch – it’s listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
A back corner of the main ranch complex.
We were invited to join a group of students at the chuckwagon for some cowboy coffee.
In charge of the chuckwagon, and the artist behind making exceptional cowboy coffee (and bannock as well, we hear), is Don’s wife, Myriam Wilson. She was an interpreter at Dredge #4 in Dawson City in the 1990s when I was running regular bus tours there. I wish I could say that I remember her well, but I have only a vague recollection – we met a lot of people, and had little direct contact with the interpreters. She and Don have been here since 2001, though, and are both extremely good at what they do – Myriam is a powerhouse 🙂 One of the things that I noticed was that the kids are told that this is their ranch – when asked “whose ranch is this?”, the correct answer is “mine!”. I like that a lot.
As Cathy and were walking back to the RV just after 1:00 pm, another pair of Percherons came by with a wagon load of kids. Look at the hooves on those horses – almost the size of a dinner plate, and with no “hoof feathers” like Clydesdales have, and which cause lots of problems.
Taking Bella and Tucker for a walk, I had a look at some of the horse-drawn equipment that’s used around the ranch.
Looking east from the parking lot as we prepared to leave. Pretty country.
Heading north towards Cochrane on Highway 22 at 2:00. It’s probably faster to take the freeway, Highway 2, but Highway 22 offers much better scenery and a few small towns.
The first stop when we reached Cochrane was Crystal Glass to have them check out the windshields. The manager said that the installation had been so poorly done that they both had to be removed and re-installed. That made me very nervous – if one was to break, we’d have a real problem. But with heavy rain forecast that night, the crew duct-taped the windshields and I said that if the weather forecast was decent, I’d have it back first thing in the morning.
Just after 4:00, we checked in to the Bow RiversEdge Campground, which ranks very high on the list of our favourite campgrounds, for 5 nights. The next days would be full of family visits and activities in the Calgary area.
About The Author
